Venezuelans March Against Intervention, Right-Wing Violence

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans will march in Caracas on Wednesday in separate marches, including government supporters marching in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution and to reject coup plans by the right-wing opposition/Photo: AVN

Venezuelans March Against Intervention, Right-Wing Violence

April 19, 2017

“It is going to be the largest red tide that has been seen in the history of Venezuela,” Maduro said of the Chavista march.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans will march in Caracas on Wednesday in separate marches, including government supporters marching in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution and to reject coup plans by the right-wing opposition.

“It is going to be the largest red tide that has been seen in the history of Venezuela, and they will join several avenues and highways of the greater Caracas with people in peace, on the streets, shouting the slogan ‘united people will never be defeated,'” said President Nicolas Maduro.

Wednesday is also the celebration of 207 years of independence for the South American country.

“April 19 is a date of patriots, it is a date of revolution, it is an anticolonialist date, it is our date,” said Maduro.

The opposition is also convening a “Mega March” calling for Maduro’s ouster, which comes after more than a week of violent protests have left several dead and causing an estimated 50 billion bolivars in damages. Among the fatalities is a year-old boy who was shot and killed when opposition protesters entered a social housing complex during the protests and an 83-year-old woman who died after not being able to receive medical attention due to opposition roadblocks.

A high school, a community health center, various subsidized food markets and several government offices have also been attacked, authorities said.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said the Chavista march will be a “lesson” to those who “promote intervention, but also to the imperial powers that today dare to stuck their noses where no one has asked them to.”

Rodriguez said Venezuela would defend its sovereignty in any scenario, even if it’s not as part of the Organization of American States. The head of the regional bloc, Luis Almagro, has been working with Venezuelan opposition leaders to spearhead a campaign to apply the so-called “Democratic Charter” against the country, effectively removing Venezuela from the OAS.

Venezuelan leaders maintain this is part of a plot to justify an intervention.

“The project for Venezuela is not to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, but rather the intervention and permanent tutelage that will prevent Venezuela from continuing to develop its project of a great nation, its Bolivarian project, but also what it has meant as an ideological reference for the region,” said Rodriguez.

On Thursday, President Maduro accused the U.S. government had “given the green light” for a coup in the country, and said that security forces had arrested an “armed commando group sent by the opposition in order to attack the mobilization called by the right-wing for Wednesday to generate violence and deaths in the country.”